Loss of a kin
by lastofthe13sons
Summary: It is a period of civil unrest... A small Mandalorian team of bounty hunters has been double-crossed and must now make their escape to finally extract their vengeance.


Episode IV: Loss of a kin

As they exited the residence through the service gate, a blaster bolt burned a hole in the nearby wall.

"Down!!!!" yelled Cirath Raan, the tallest of the group.

The other three didn't need much prodding and were behind cover at once. A hail of more blaster fire immediately rained on the small strike team.

Sekka nodded at the tall Mandalorian, her blaster at the ready, and Cirath nodded back at her. They had an intimate understanding of each other, specially since this wasn't their first job together and one usually knew what the other was thinking even before anything was said. With another nod from her, Cirath motioned to the other two to get ready and pointed to the exit leading to the gardens. Sekka pulled a second blaster from the holster on her lower back and returned fire from behind cover. Cirath peeked above the low wall and did the same. Jero and Meesh dashed quickly toward the gardens, taking advantage of the cover fire from the other two and positioning themselves to have a clear line of fire on the opposition. Once behind the relative safety of an avant-garde decorative statue, Meesh unfolded her sniper rifle and bore down on the enemy while Jero took a head-count and relayed the information to the team.

"I count six, no wait, six more incoming, front gate."

Meesh almost smirked and calmly announced her intentions on the short-range com. "Firing, get ready to move."

With that, she pulled the trigger and the blaster bolt left the muzzle of her rifle with barely a sound, striking one of their assailants on the side of the neck. Meesh grinned and searched for her next target

"One down, they're re-evaluating, time for you two to move."

Sekka and Cirath moved quickly toward the gardens while Jero let out a barrage of blaster fire from his carbine, keeping the opposition's head down. Once the team was reunited, Sekka finally chimed in.

"They don't look imperial, and we took care of his security team, these guys are pros. Looks like our client doesn't want to pay."

Cirath almost laughed.

"A lot of them don't."

Meesh took her eyes away from her scope, looked down casually and retorted.

"We got another deadbeat? Firing…"

and let fly another blaster bolt, catching another unsuspecting mercenary on the forehead.

Jero adjusted his RF scope and made his report.

"We gotta move, the other six just linked up with them and I'm pretty sure these guys are going to try and flank us."

Cirath knew that Jero was right. He had a good team but if they let themselves flanked they'd have to fight them from two directions, their only advantage was mobility and he'd have to make sure that they wouldn't get boxed in.

"Move out. Meesh, pin them down for a little longer then leave them an incendiary, meet us at the RV point if you can't catch up."

The sniper gave the team a thumbs-up and quickly moved to a different vantage point while Jero shot another barrage of blaster fire. The three waited until their sniper opened up again before they all retreated into the brush. They were running at a steady pace, Sekka on point while Cirath covered the rear when they finally heard the muffled sound of incendiary grenades going off in the distance.

"Meesh are you clear?"

Cirath enquired over the coms. There was a long silence until the com unit came back to life.

"Cirath, the good news is they're going to have to take the long way around, the gardens are burning right now…"

the rest of the team could hear her slight panting, indicating that she herself was on the move.

"… the bad news is, a transport just pulled up to the front of the mansion and another twelve-pack just piled out. Hauling it right now to high ground, I'll try and take out as many of the original twelve, but no promises."

Before Cirath could even say anything, Sekka picked up the pace, holstering one of her weapons, moving as silently and as quickly as possible. Jero stated the obvious.

"That other team is gonna come after us, and it'll be daylight soon, we need to get to the RV point and link up with Meesh."

Cirath was glad and unhappy at the same time, glad to have a team that was efficient, but unhappy about having another deadbeat client. At the break of dawn, the three mandalorians made it to their pre-arranged RV point, they'd wait two hours for Meesh and if she didn't show up, they'd head out to where the ship was and wait for her there as long as they possibly could. The lack of radio contact from their sniper worried all of them but none of them showed it, they knew the way it worked, they knew not to show worry or resignation, it was bad for their collective morale. They would stick to being alert and aware and be ready to move as quickly as the situation required. Even with the sun slowly rising, the blanket of heavy brush and trees barely let any light inside the jungle. Jero had switched his RF scope to infra-red and was scanning the area randomly for any signs of their pursuers, while Sekka made sure both her blasters were fully reloaded.

Out of nowhere, a blaster bolt slammed into a tree, missing Sekka's head by mere inches. Had she not leaned over to pick up her knife she would have been the small team's first casualty. Everyone took cover instinctively, blasters at the ready.

"Sniper…" Jero said plainly.

"Are you sure?" Sekka asked sarcastically

"How the hell did you miss him, scanner boy?"

Jero simply shrugged.

"He's good, probably using some sort of thermal scrambler."

Cirath was methodical, looking for signs of an ambush, all the while trying to stay in cover.

"Whoever he is, he is going to try and pin us down until the rest of his buddies get here, we need to move."

Sekka grunted loudly and sighed.

"Who would've thought they'd apply the same tactics or that they'd even have a tracker, Meesh obviously ran them around on a wild Bantha chase while this one tracked us down."

The tall mandalorian nodded in scanner boy's direction, motioning for him to stay where he was and then he turned to Sekka. She was already nodding herself and, once again, pulled out the second blaster from her lower back. She leaned out from behind the tree she was using as cover and let both her blasters speak for her, spraying an area of the brush where the last sniper shot came from. The enemy sniper moved quickly, strafing through the vegetation but was suddenly cut off by Jero opening fire on his end. Surprisingly the sniper activated a jump pack and cleared both lines of fire, heading out to a higher vantage point on top a tall tree, where he was promptly blown to bits by Cirath's rocket launcher.

"Dodge that" Jero smirked.

Cirath promptly discarded the launcher and picked up his carbine.

"We have to move now, all that commotion will have given out our position."

Jero quickly planted several mines while Sekka took her position on point and the three weary warriors hiked it out toward their escape.

The two mercenary teams were trying to box-in a mandalorian team of four. They started with twenty four and were now down to twenty and they still could not find them, until they got the transmission from their tracker and heard a huge explosion in the opposite direction. They all piled in a speeder transport, some of them on swoops and sped out to where the noise came from. Meesh wasn't sure if she was supposed to be relieved or worried, the explosion could mean two things, either her team mates were getting down to business or they were all dead. She had purposely kept radio silence just in case the enemy was listening in and she had to continue to do so lest she give away the other three's location. The only way she could be sure was to meet them at the extraction point, she had missed her rendez-vous with them while she was playing hide and seek and she had to get back to the ship as quickly as possible. She dumped all excess gear that she had, leaving only her ammo and a few grenades and made her way through the dense jungle.

Sekka was moving at a steady clip now, Jero and Cirath behind her several dozen feet separate, all of them scanning in every direction. They had almost reached the ship when the mines went off. They all knew that the mercenaries had at least tripped the explosives, they hoped that most of them got wiped out but they pressed on without counting on it. Under a click away and what they were all hoping to avoid happened. Jero spotted them first.

"Swoops, take cover!!"

Of the worst possible places they could catch up with them, this was it. They were wide out in an open clearing, several rock outcroppings their only possible cover, and they were closing in fast. Two swoops barreled through the clearing, opening fire on the mandalorians. Sekka dove out of the way, spraying blaster fire on the swoops as they zoomed past, but Cirath had already fired his gauntlet missile, clipping one, blowing out its engine as it careened out of control and crashed with a massive explosion, raining debris on the warriors. The second circled around, mounted blasters firing rapidly. Jero emptied his blaster carbine, winging the swoop, slowing it down considerably until it finally idled a few yards from the flaming debris. The rider drew his weapon only to be cut down by Sekka's dual blasters.

"Haul ass!!! Get to the ship" Cirath yelled frantically to the other two.

Again, Sekka was ahead of him, sprinting quickly while reloading, followed by Jero and again Cirath holding up the rear. They were literally at the ground cave where they had stashed their dropship when the speeder transport showed up. It had billowing smoke escaping from the rear, the mines weren't enough to take it out and aboard, still seemed to be a full twelve-man team of mercenaries. The mandalorians wouldn't make it to the ship on time, they would be taken down by a hail of blaster fire as they made a run for it. None of them had to say another word, all three took cover as soon as the mercenaries opened fire, they were going to have to hold off twelve mercs or die trying.

The speeder was almost on them when the driver's head suddenly exploded, veering the vehicle abruptly and banking at an impossible angle before spilling its passengers and rolling over several times.

"What kept you so long? Oh sorry, did I forget to say I was firing?"

Meesh's voice came playfully over the coms. All three mandos looked up and watched as the female sniper gingerly jumped down from a rock formation and run towards the ship.

Cirath smiled to himself and was suddenly caught by a blaster bolt behind his thigh. At least half of the mercenaries survived the crash and were still engaging them. The tall mandalorian fell, clutching his wounded leg, trying vainly to take cover. Jero was immediately on him, picking him up, hauling him over his shoulders, while Sekka gave cover fire aided by Meesh, all the way to the dropship. Finally inside, mercenaries still rabidly shooting at them, Meesh hurriedly sat at the controls and lifted off.

Cirath was sprawled out on the floor, panting rapidly while Sekka checked out his wound.

"Well, it could've been worse, it could've been your ego."

Meesh chuckled out loud, punched in their travel coordinates and kicked on the hyperdrive to lightspeed. Jero was sitting on one of the crates, his back leaning against the wall, armor covered in grime and muck, he had taken off his helmet. Cirath gave him a thumbs up, all the while groaning as Sekka applied a bacta patch on his wound. Jero smiled a tired smile, returned the thumbs up and slumped down quietly onto the plastisteel crate. Jero was dead, a seared hole through his chest from a blaster shot he had taken in the back.

Jero Khar had done his duty, he had accomplished his mission and his surviving brother and sisters were going to get payback, in full and with interest.

Vode An.


End file.
